The present invention relates to equipment management and more particularly to locating automatically equipment stored in an equipment rack.
In many companies, it is common to store equipment in racks, which typically house several components on different shelves therein. By storing components in racks, a company can organize and optimize space utilization. The optimization and organization of space can be very important if the equipment must be stored under particular environmental conditions, such as low humidity and/or low temperature conditions. Under those conditions, a special room is usually dedicated to housing such environmentally sensitive equipment. In any event, it is not uncommon to have a room filled with multiple racks, each storing several pieces of equipment.
Keeping track of the location of each component can be a daunting, but necessary, task. If the company desires to reconfigure its network, or if a particular component, such as a server, sends out an alert that a hardware component is about to fail, a system administrator must be able to locate the components quickly. System management software is available to help the system administrator monitor computer components such as servers, storage devices, and network routers, and to warn the system administrator if and when intervention is required for a particular component. For example, intervention would be necessary for environmental concerns (such as elevated temperatures in a portion of the equipment), hardware failures, and performance issues. System alerts can also include warnings of potential problems so that the system administrator can take preventive measures to avoid a catastrophic failure.
Typical system management software applications include a system management console program and a system management agent. The console program typically resides on the system administrator""s workstation, and the management agent resides on the managed components. The system administrator is able to monitor each component through the cooperation between the console program and the management agent. Management software applications include IBM Netfinity Manager, IBM Netfinity Director, Tivoli TME 10, and Compaq Insight Manager, to name a few. The utility of such programs is clear, yet, those advantages can be seriously limited if the system administrator cannot identify the physical location of a component, particularly if the component is one of several hundred, or mounted in a rack that is in a room with dozens of other racks.
One method of locating or tracking the physical location of a piece of equipment involves manually attaching a label, such as a bar code sticker, to each rack and/or component and scanning the bar code number with a reading device. This method, however, requires either a person operating the reading device to scan each component, or having the component moved past a stationary scanner. Both can be time consuming, inefficient, and costly. To allow system management software to be aware of the physical location of the component, the user typically performs the burdensome task of entering manually the identity and location of the component into the system. As components are added, relocated, removed, or replaced, the physical scanning or data entry methods can easily miss or misidentify components. Thus, accuracy is questionable.
Another method of tracking the physical location of a component involves embedding an electrical memory device in the component and providing a physical connection, mechanical or electrical, between the enclosure and the component. When the component is placed in the enclosure, a system, which communicates with the enclosure, reads and stores the memory information of the component. The system then allows the user to enter search terms and the system illuminates an indicator light near the component, which matches the user""s search criteria.
This method has several drawbacks, one of which is that the physical connection between the enclosure and the component, such as a cable or connector, can become a source of failure, requiring human intervention and maintenance. Thus, reliability is an issue. Moreover, the connection between the system and the enclosure must support the protocol needed to read the memory and control the light. For example, an interconnection between a server and an enclosure housing disk drives might support the protocols needed to pass information to and from the disks, but might not support commands or signals needed to illuminate and extinguish the light.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method for locating rack-mounted equipment. The system and method should be automatic, i.e., requiring little or no human intervention, and highly reliable requiring little or no maintenance. In addition, the system and method should be cost effective. The present invention addresses such a need.
A method and system for automatically determining the location of equipment mounted in a rack is disclosed. The method and system comprises providing a plurality of signal emitting elements within the rack and transmitting positional information from the rack to the equipment via at least one signal emitting element of the plurality of signal emitting elements. The equipment receives the positional information transmitted by the at least one signal emitting element, and is capable of reporting the positional information, such that the location of the equipment can be determined.
Through the aspects of the present invention, the location of a piece of equipment mounted in a rack is automatically provided to the component itself. This positional data can then be reported automatically to a system management software application utilized by the system administrator.